Saturday, July 29, 2006

Before sending out a pillowcase I made for a Flickr friend, I wanted to "sign" the back. As usual, I couldn't satisfy myself with something plain, so I added a little sacred heart. I've often wondered about the origin of the sacred heart in Mexican art - it's such a familiar image to me and makes me think of home...

Saturday, July 22, 2006

It was a very rainy day yesterday, so I spent almost the entire time indoors, stitching my third (yes, THIRD) Stitch-It Kit pillowcase. I had a lot of fun with this one... I used some of the same patterns I'd used already on the "Dish" towel, so I tried to stitch in different colors for variety.

But my favorite part by far has to be the little cat...

Isn't it adorable? I didn't originally plan to put it in the pillowcase, but after finishing last night that space in the middle looked too blank:

The other good news is that my French knots are slowly improving... :)

Monday, July 17, 2006

I finally finished the second Stitch-It Kit pillowcase last night - I mainly wanted to practice my French knots but they're still looking pretty sub-par. :) Oddly, instead of getting tired of the whole pillowcase thing, I found myself thinking of new ideas, so I bought a couple more on sale yesterday.

I may just give up on the French knots and just accept that they're not my specialty... :) Lately I've been thinking of Frida Kahlo's paintings, and I sketched one today while on lunch at work. Who knows, that might be the next theme for something... I love how vibrant she was, how unique and how proud of her culture. I read today about her disliking the city and hinting at that in her paintings.

Living in New York, I often think of two of her paintings, one where she stands on the border between Mexico and the United States, and the other where her dress hangs between the two. In both, her image of the city is everything I see here: overflowing trash, grime, dull skyscrapers, and electric lights. I suppose I long for green things the way she longed for the desert and Mexico. Mostly I long for that feeling of nature, of being closer to (if not totally enveloped in) natural things. And the smell of New York in the summer. Sigh. They don't put that in movies. :)

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Recently my extremely talented Flickr friend, Julia, sent me a beautiful Gocco print. I was so overwhelmed, I decided to make her something, so I thought what better subject to embroider than one of her drawings...

The little yellow circles are chain stitch worked in a tight spiral, starting from the middle and working outward - I got the idea from an embroidery book I saw in Barnes and Noble when we were in Baltimore... The grass is worked in two shades of extra-grassy green. :)

Thursday, July 6, 2006

I started work on a second pillowcase recently - my favorite part so far was stitching the detail on this little cake. I guess I did a variation of long and short stitch on the inside of the cake - I just made it up as I went along, but I like the texture.

I used lighter colors on the whole thing, and I think all the motifs look good together... Only thing left to stitch is a message on a little bird's banner, and I may add something more to the cake design.